Sudden natural death

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Sudden natural death happens. It must be differentiated from other ways of dying (suicide, homicide, accidental).

By system

Respiratory[1]

Cerebral

  • SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy).

Cardiac

Older

  • Atherosclerotic heart disease (ASHD); AKA coronary artery disease (CAD).
  • Hypertension - a heart > ~400 g is considered good enough if nothing else is present.[2]

Younger

Notes:

  • The mechanism is usually arrhythmia; this is usually not provable at autopsy.

Detailed cardiac[1]

  • ASHD,
  • Cardiomyopathy.
  • Lymphocytic myocarditis.
  • Floppy mitral valve (MV).
  • Aortic valve stenosis.
  • Congenital cardiac abnormality.
  • Coronary artery dissection.
  • Aortic dissection.
  • Arrhythmia.[3]
    • Long QT syndrome.
    • Brugada syndrome.
    • Short QT syndrome.
    • Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT).
    • Anomalous conduction pathways.
    • Dysplasia of nodal arteries.
    • Atrioventricular node tumour.
    • Sodium channel disease.
    • Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation.

Post-mortem (molecular) testing for arrhythmias:[4]

  • CPVT.
  • Sodium channel disease.
  • Brugada syndrome.

By mechanism

Hemorrhagic[1]

  • Ruptured AAA.
  • Peptic ulcer.
  • Cerebral aneurysm.

See also

Reference

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 de la Grandmaison GL (January 2006). "Is there progress in the autopsy diagnosis of sudden unexpected death in adults?". Forensic Sci. Int. 156 (2-3): 138–44. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.12.024. PMID 16410164.
  2. MSP. 29 September 2010.
  3. URL: http://www.sads.org.uk/causes_of_sads.htm. Accessed on: 29 September 2010.
  4. MSP. 29 September 2010: